Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Mac Brazina on Why Your Biggest Competitor is You EP 2

Episode Date: February 16, 2021

In today’s show, we have a chat with human building coach, Mac Brazina who shares her thoughts on cultivating mental toughness, self-care, and women’s empowerment. When Mac first started Human Builder, she was focusing solely on physical training. However, she soon found her true calling, which was helping her clients cultivate a stellar mindset.  Be it the boxing ring, business, or life in general; you will learn that your biggest competition is with yourself.  John reveals the mosquito principle from his Passion Struck Framework at this juncture and shares how you swat out the people, habits, and influences that are holding you back. The comfort of a safety net, mounting anxiety, and the resulting negative self-talk pull us down and prevents us from leading a purpose-filled life. In today’s show, Mac encourages one and all to have an open discussion on mental wellness.  We share some great self-care tips so that you forge ahead instead of internalizing your pain. Enjoy! Some of the Questions that I Ask In This Show How did you find and unlock your hidden potential? How did you develop the right mindset to excel at a daunting sport like boxing? How do you train your clients and help them build a tough mindset? How do you conduct a mosquito audit of your life?  Why are most people afraid to lead a purpose-filled life? How did you become interested in the brain’s impact on human performance? How has the meaning of female empowerment, strength, and masculinity evolved? Some of the Questions that I Ask In This Show How did you find and unlock your hidden potential? How did you develop the right mindset to excel at a daunting sport like boxing? How do you train your clients and help them build a tough mindset? How do you conduct a mosquito audit of your life?  Why are most people afraid to lead a purpose-filled life? How did you become interested in the brain’s impact on human performance? How has the meaning of female empowerment, strength, and masculinity evolved over time? What You Will Learn In This Show How to unlock the power of your mind Actionable self-care tips and coping strategies The mosquito principle, and how to swat out all the things that are pulling you down And so much more… Follow Mac Brazina Here: Website: https://humanbuilder.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_human_builder/ Follow John R. Miles Here: Website - https://passionstruck.com/ ​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_life ​ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Johnrmiles.c0m ​ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Milesjohnr ​ Medium: https://medium.com/@JohnRMiles John's Website: https://johnrmiles.com/ - John's New eBook - The Passion Struck Framework https://passionstruck.com/coaching/ Follow Passion Struck on Instagram    

I feel like people are innately wired to fall into comfort and that's fine. Some people don't want to turn that key or pull that pin and that's their prerogative. But I think that the greater contagion is a showmanship and comparison than anything else. If we can get rid of that, then the apathy and the comfortability will start to naturally evolve because there will be permission to seek fulfillment elsewhere. Rather than what is my social circle think of me? How many followers do I have? Am I the cool entrepreneur account?

Like, who cares? Welcome to the PassionStruck podcast. My name is John Miles, a former combat veteran and multi-industry CEO, turned entrepreneur and human performance expert. Each week we showcase an inspirational person and message that helps you unlock your hidden potential and unleash your creativity and leadership abilities. Thank you for spending time with me today and let's get igniting! Thank you for spending time with me today, and let's get igniting!

Welcome to the Passion Struct Podcast. In this episode, I am thrilled to welcome Mack Brasina to the show. Mack is on a mission to provide expert guns on the road to personal empowerment. While she began her coaching career and personal training, her human building background goes much deeper. Max has a bachelor's degree in mass media and digital communications with a focus on interpersonal dynamics. She's a sponsored certification in personal training and in a stationable thirst for information about the brain in human consciousness. Mac believes there's a lot more to an individual's transformation than just their meat suit.

Mac believes in integrating science with candid human connection and mysticism, bridging the gaps between the questions that hold us back. As a compassionate guide, mentor and coach, Mack nurtures the evolution of each individual with utter confidentiality, non-judgment and dedication to uniqueness of each human. As she says at one rep at a time. I am thrilled to be here today with passion struck leader, Mack Brasina.

Thank you so much for joining the show. Oh, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, like I said, I'm actually thrilled to be here with you. And I first met Mac about 18 months ago. We were both working out at one of our local gyms, and as you'll get into this, more, you'll know she's a personal trainer. But more than that, I was just completely blown away by her presence, her positive attitude, and her innate desire to build others up around her.

You know, she's a mindset shifter, a human builder, a professional coach, and a professional and a personal trainer. So, Mac, the purpose of our show is to help others unlock their hidden potential and ignite their passion journeys. So I think one of the good things for our listeners to understand is you have definitely found your hidden potential and unlocked yours, but how did you do it? That's such a big question. It's been such a process.

And with all due respect, I stopped calling myself personal trainer a long time ago, because I feel like it's especially with the rise of social media and the fictspo generation, fitness inspiration. Everybody wants to be a trainer, but so few people have the dedication and the heart and the capacity to step up and be a coach. And really early on in my journey, mostly because I had phenomenal mentors and coaches in my life, I was like, yes, I train, but like, I'm with you for so much more than that. Uh, but what I call the other 23 hours of the day.

So it's the other 23 hours where you're not just in the gym, you're not just training, which is so surface level, like what we do with this meat suit of ours is so three-dimensional, it's like so limited. But the human potential is limitless. And when I started really falling in love and opening up to why people were coming to me in the first place, what really lit me up, what got me excited and really sitting down with my shadowy aspects and my fears and dementors as I call them from the Harry Potter books. You know, they showed me what, first of all, I had to overcome and then they showed me the

magic that was hidden underneath it that allows me to empathize, connect with and guide other human beings towards becoming humanist book, which in my opinion is unlocking that potential. Whether it's in the gym or in your work or in your relationships, as long as you are willing to actually turn the key, actually, I think, on the back of this shirt, we have a brain grenade, which is a symbol of the feel, is really representative of what we do, because everything that I do and teach is centered around the brain and consciousness, whereas the fitness industry or personal training generally puts that last. They don't really care how you feel or what you actually want or what traumas have transpired

in the body. They just want you to shred or look good for their books. And that's just something that I think is far too superficial. But in order to see the power of a grenade or the mind, you have to be willing to pull the pin. You have to make a choice to open that up. And while making that choice might seem pretty obvious, like, duh, of course you would want to pull the pin,

it's not that simple, especially if you have battled with your brain in the past. It's a very daunting and very scary. Yeah, so when you started going into this, did you know this was the route or did the clients kind of like push you in that direction? Oh God, it's so interesting because like when hindsight's 2020, right? So I could look back and be like, yes, I knew exactly where I was going. The reality is, and like none of us do. None of us have any idea what the fuck we're doing,

or I'll just make it up as we go. But what I was and always have been really good at is listening to my intuition. I'm a very intuitively led individual. You can chop that up to me being an aries or you can chop it up to intuitive alignment. But I definitely didn't know that this is where it was gonna end up.

When I started getting fit, I did so because I didn't have a whole lot else, and I really, self-image, confidence, assuredness in my abilities. I was talking myself out of every which thing, but at the same time, I'd also started boxing with an amazing coach, named Frankie Perez. He was amazing, amazing, taught me so much. But he was probably one of the first people that showed me that it was so much more than just what you looked like or what you were doing for the workout. It was how you showed up. It was how you held yourself accountable, the consistency and all these things.

But even outside of the gym or the training room, I have always been fascinated with the brain and psychology and neuroscience and the more that my journey progressed and my willingness to sit with the discomfort of my own mental health, having struggled with anxiety and depression and panic attacks to boot. I found that there was and panic attacks to boot. I found that there was, it was kind of like a mental holy grail where I was like, I need to know everything about you because you hold so much power over me. And every person that came to me, I was very big on sitting them down and asking,

why, why are you here? Oh, I wanna lose weight, that's awesome. We can do that, no problem, science, in, calories out. It's not that hard. Why are you actually here? And I've gotten everything from rate to sexual assault to addiction to struggling with bipolar, to death of loved ones, to murders of loved ones, to any tragedy or a human affliction you could imagine has crossed my room at some point. And the more that happened and the more I embarked on my own path, my own path is in the one that aligned and felt the most resonant with me as a human being. The more I realized that people were coming to me not just for the workout. I can write a great workout, but it's not that hard.

coming to me not just for the workout. I can write a great workout, but it's not that hard. You know, like I can write you a swanky meal plan. It'll be geared and mathematically awesome. It's gonna be great, but it's still only gonna get you 10% of the way there. I wanted to take people all the way to their full potential. And every person that crossed my path would reaffirm that to me by saying, no, I'm coming to you for the mind stuff. I want to understand my brain.

I want to battle. I've been struggling with anxiety. I've struggled with eating disorders. I have all of these other things. And really, every person that's ever crossed my path is a reflection of a past version of myself. And I never, ever, ever miss a moment to acknowledge that. I always let a client know when I'm experiencing that reflection with them because that's, that is the beauty in being human as fuck is when we can acknowledge that humanness and empathize fully and completely empathize

with the other individual from this grounded human perspective of saying, no, I've been where you are. I understand what you're feeling and you can get out here's how. Okay, that's great, really great background. And one of the things I picked up on is your boxer and I boxed for two and a half years. In my case, I was forced to do it

because I was at the Naval Academy, but we're all our first two years. We do that, we do different martial arts, we do judo. But I think one thing that it really taught me, I think military levels of playing field, because when you're at an institution like that, it doesn't matter how much money you have, it doesn't matter what your background was. Everyone wears the same uniform. When you're in that ring, you had better show up

or you're gonna be lights out. And one of the things I really got enamored with is it really taught me there's training with the person in the ring, but there's all these things that you have to do outside of it. And what are some of the things that you picked up was any of that similar for you?

Oh my God. The only reason I haven't kept boxing is because I haven't found a coach that I feel good with yet. Like that's how much I love it. I was training like five days a week, two hours a day, loved MMA and boxing so much. The biggest thing that I took away from that sport

in particular, because I've had a myriad of sports across my path mostly because I like to try new things and make myself uncomfortable, is that the opponent that you're fighting is not the opponent in the ring. It's the one in the mirror. There's a reason why boxers shadow box. They're boxing themselves. They're fighting themselves. And knowing who that true opponent is

and what your true objective is, which is to be fully present, first of all, if you're not present, you're getting hit in the face. Keep your boundary, know where you're strongest, know where you're weakest, and be willing to take a hit and then get back up, whether it's a permit or a hit from an opponent. Yeah, I totally get what you mean.

I remember I was in high school, pretty decent runner and we were lucky enough my sophomore year in high school to win the state championship. And but as we were going through that process, I realized I was going through the motion more for the team members and, you know, to be part of the team that I was to personally make a difference. And it really was not until after they left, and I became, you know, the man that I really

started looking inside and it became so much more about me looking in the mirror and having to figure out what's my form like, what's my stride like, and my working out the hardest I can be, and my pushing myself, and my doing all these things to improve where I could be. And for me, it wasn't until that point that I truly broke out.

And I think that's kind of what you're saying. Your biggest competitor is yourself. Hey, absolutely. Whether it's, you know, in the gym, you know, and pushing yourself to do that eighth rep when, you know, you've only got six in you or, you know, in business or whatever. So I think that's, you know, that's a great analogy.

So, you know, one of the things you were talking about is mindset. And I have been doing yoga a long time now, but some may find it surprising where I started. And because a lot of times when I tell my friends I do yoga, they look at me and they're like, that's not that macho at the, you know, a thing. So, but I actually started doing it. I spent a tour with, um, um, SEAL TEAM 10 and they did it there for flexibility.

And, you know, so it not only flexibility, but mindset. So as a personal trainer, um, you know, that's where I try to get some of my mindset back, is that or taking long walks or figuring out ways to do it. What are some ways that you train those people you coach on how to get that mindset fixed? And everything they do, absolutely everything they do. I steer clear of the word mindset because it's so generalized. And when we look at the brain as a muscle, there's so many ins and outs and intricacies of it. Anatomically, we can look at it and say, yeah, this is the brain. It's the same for everybody,

but it's not. The wiring and the way in which these wiring's transpired and happened and these dialogues that happened between the peripheral, the central nervous system, the intrinsic nervous system of the heart are all unique to every single person and the way that the brain fires is entirely unique to every single individual. So the first step in shifting your perspective or your mindset but really the POV with which you're choosing to look at your life is creating an awareness at all. Some people will go into yoga or a yoga class or do a video and their brain's still running on what they gotta do.

Their conscious brain is just ticking off things. They're still talking shit to themselves. They're not actually fully present. But yoga by definition is union. It's union with God, it's union with the body, it's union of the mind, heart and gut. It's full and complete, conscious, presentness and unity. And that's something that I try to bring into the weight room as much as I do to the mat, with whether I'm physically training a client or working with my clients online.

But the first step is creating any awareness. Be aware of when your body is tense, where are you holding it, where does it go? Don't try and stop it, but where does it go? Be aware of the thoughts that happen autonomically. Are you talking shit to yourself? Are you projecting judgments on to other people? Because you're afraid they're gonna do it to you?

Maybe we can just observe it. We don't have to do anything about it. We can just observe it. In that awareness and observation is where we give ourselves as human beings an opportunity to choose. And then from making that choice, we can shift our mindset. But we can't just be positive, or that's what I call toxic positivity, because there are negative emotions that need

to be felt. Otherwise, they won't be processed, and they'll just hide in your body elsewhere, or they'll harbor into a behavior that you don't necessarily want. You know? Yeah, exactly. I don't think I had mentioned this to you before, but I've written a book. It's going to be coming out here in the near future. But, thank you.

Thank you. One of the chapters, and I know you like to use metaphors and analogies. One of the things I use in the book is something I call the mosquito principle. And this derived from, I was driving in the car, and the announcer came on and said,

what is the most deadly animal in the world. And you know my mind went to you know a lion a shark killer well. And he came back and said it's the mosquito because. They kill so many. People around the world you know most ten times that of. Of other animals and so i start thinking about it and i came back with. You know there are so many mosquitoes in our lives. There's, when I labeled them,

there's the invisible suffocator. So that's the person where you say, I'm gonna launch this new business called human builder and they're like, well, do you understand the repercussions? Do you understand the time constraints? They're these half glass empty. Then there's the pain in the ass mosquitoes.

Then there's the blood suckers who want to just drain the blood out of you. But as I started looking at it, not only do you have to do an audit of those mosquitoes, I found there are things that you're doing in your life that you need to get rid of. You know, it was going to that bar really allowing you to show up or any of those people that you're hanging out there with, you know, really helping you on this path that you want to go to. And so, you know, it's kind of along the same lines of what you're saying. You've got to do a mosquito audit in your life. Absolutely. It's funny that you say that too because I have a client who was, she has her bachelor's

degree in kinesiology. She was a collegiate athlete. She's so much fun for me to work with. We have an absolute blast. We actually used to work together. And I just, I love her to pieces. And we talk really openly when we're training about anxiety and about what's going on in our lives or spirituality and things like that.

And so one day she was like, oh my God, I got all these like thoughts. Like you just gotta catch him in the act. You gotta zap him. She's like, they're like little mosquitoes I've decided. Every time they come up, I just go zap. And I'm like, that's really good. Like they just kinda fly into the, into the bug light.

And my man and I are really into a show called Big Mouth, which is so awful and it's good. And they, in this last season, talked about the anxiety mosquitoes that just buzz around you with this fear, but they're just mosquitoes. Like you just got to swat them away. You know, even I call them ants. So they're automatic negative thoughts, right? But they're just ants. Like are you gonna let an ant take your lunch? Like if an ant came up to you and you're having a picnic in the yard or like in the in the park or something and an ant comes up and he's like, I'm gonna take your sandwich. You'd be like, get out of here. Like, look that motherfucker away.

Get out of here. Look that motherfucker away. You know what I mean? But it's just, yeah. But they're so loud, whether it's a negative individual in our lives, which is really easy to spot most of the time. But what's really difficult is noticing those tendencies and those characteristics within ourselves, which I'm a big believer in holding ourselves accountable to. So are there mosquitoes or ants living in your brain that are keeping

you from doing things? Are there things in your life that you really just need to swat and get rid of? You know? But if we chop it up to them, you know, being loud or being fuzzy and, you know, just these nuisances in our lives, and then we're not going to do anything with it. But if we can acknowledge it and see it within ourselves, then we can also see it in other people. When we see it in other people, first we can have more compassion for them. We can hold more space for them.

We can also draw our boundary where we need to. Just go, right. I see you. I see you. We're going to put you over there. You know what I mean? Absolutely. It kind of leads me to one of the things I keep seeing

is I believe we've got two major contagions facing most Western cultures. And people would say you're in the middle of a pandemic, but I believe we're on the verge of a national emergency almost. And that's because I think people are falling so much into comfort and apathy, which I call the contagion of the human mind and that contagion of the human spirit, that they're pursuing these things that I've labeled like a portfolio career instead of doing, you know, living a purpose filled life. And I was wondering is that something that you're seeing in your clients and

you know, what are some of the reasons that you think it's happening? It's interesting that you say that because there's a handful of contagions. There's apathy, 100%, there's comfort, 100%, because every human being's right is too evolved. You are not beholden to the narrative that you were brought here with, you are not beholden to your traumas, to your past, you are a human being and therefore you have the right to change the evolve. The comfort though, I think people align with because the discomfort is so great and it's very in your face where the other contingent I would align with this topic in particular is social media,

which is actually why I'm on social media because my intention is to bring humanity back to this very vapid desert wasteland of validation and superficiality. And I find people looking more to check a box and do a thing to say that they did it, rather than asking whether or not it truly aligns and resonates with them. I see it a lot in coaches and trainers especially because of the social media bump of fitness. I see it a lot in people caught in the corporate monster where they really want to break away. They want to do something. They really want to create something of value, but that internal dialogue of fulfillment and self compassion is almost entirely muted partially out of survival, because if they

were to allow that to open up while they're in the middle of this corporate monster, it would eat them alive. You know? So I feel like people are innately wired to fall into comfort, and that's fine. Some people don't want to turn that key or pull that pin and that's their prerogative. But I think that the greater contagion is showmanship and comparison than anything else. If we can get rid of that, then the apathy and the comfortability

will start to naturally evolve because there will be permission to seek. Filment elsewhere rather than what is my social circle think of me how many followers do I have am I the cool entrepreneur account. Who cares. Yeah, it's um. You know, I had this. this, um, Pastor years ago, and one of my favorite, uh, sermons he ever preached on was the main thing about the main thing is keeping the main thing, the main thing, mouthful. But, you know, it comes from, uh, you know, what originally came from the Bible, but, um,

my whole, the whole reason I like that sermon is it really teaches you that so much about today, and you're talking about social media, so many people are cut up today and what is it really teaches you that so much about today and you're talking about social media, so many people are caught up today in what is urgent versus what's important. And you can't have both. You know, you- That's a really good point.

I wanna hop it on that really quick because the brain does this too, especially if we battled with anxiety to any degree, which most human beings do, especially right now. If we are constantly worried about what's important versus what's necessary, we're missing everything in between. And the brain only deems what's important based off of past survival stimuli, it's received and saved. So if there is an anxious or a survival response linked to comparison being on social media,

or something of that effect, the brain says, this is immediately urgent, I must address it now. If a trigger gets pulled for somebody that has to do with a past trauma or something that has been stored in their limbic system, the amygdala is going to go, hey, why are you? And the brain is going to say, this is urgent, you must address it now, which is how we fall into those patterns of cyclical thought and negative self-talk as well. Yeah, so tell me, you know, I know you've done a lot of studying about the brain and how the brain relates to human performance.

You know, what led you down that path? Battling it myself. It was the biggest obstacle I ever had to overcome was my mental health. I'm talking, I dropped out of school for two years because I couldn't get to class because my anxiety was too high. I had lost my job, I lived in with my mom, cut myself off from my dad. I was in a toxic relationship. I could tell you the days I've woken up without feeling anxiety, more than I could tell you

the days that I haven't woken up with anxiety. Does that make sense? Like to me, that was just the way my brain function. And my dad has battled with mental illness, my mother, my siblings, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, bipolar disorder depression, I already said depression, ADHD. So for me, it was kind of a, this stops with me mentality.

And in order to do that I've kind of made myself this vessel of experimentation and research where I'm always trying to sit in the back seat of my mind and of my body and Really observe how things happen not only in the gym and in movement But how certain thoughts come out and what they feel like and what the energetic response is and how it feels in my body and really creating this infinitely expansive relationship between what used to terrify me between my ears and what I used to not be able to look at below the neck.

what I used to not be able to look at below the neck. And now I've found this really comfortable, loving, maternal relationship with my own body and my own mind that allows me to safely and healthfully explore these things and open up the gateway of guidance for me to use this not only scientific and researched information, but personal and pathetic, real human grounded information that I've acquired through my own trial and

error. And some could say that's naive, but in my opinion, it's what's made me and human builder as successful as it has been, is my willingness to go there with myself. Yeah, I have not talked about it a lot publicly, but I have gone through myself all kinds of trauma, military trauma, physical assault, witnessing people dying in front of me, lots of different things. I think we come from two different generations, we come from two different generations, but for me, you know, being in the military, et cetera, I never, I never got a treatment for it. In fact, it was looked at very poorly, even if you brought it up. So, you know,

there was kind of this, you know, culture of suck it up, buttercup, and move on to the next thing. And so when I started pursuing my career, I would see these people who would call out because they were anxious or depressed. And they were actually labeled as a laughing stock. And so as I sat there and observed it, I myself spent so many years just struggling inside because the person I was portraying on the outside wasn't that I had no outlet and I, you know, for these things and I kept just internalizing the pain I was feeling. And it took many, many years.

That is more, I appreciate you sharing that with me and it's important for men in your position to speak about this because you had mentioned the term macho earlier with regard to military culture and I work with a lot of military guys. And I veterans have been a huge part of my life for a very long time. And there is something to be said for a called action for this culture to welcome and openly embrace the discussion of mental health and mental illness as it results from combat, from conditioning, from training, from culture that if gone on address, you said you just stifled it.

Well, that's gonna destroy your gut. It's gonna cause inflammatory conditions. It's gonna keep you from sleeping. It's gonna keep you from having sex, talking about macho. Like these are the things that stand in the way of your archetypes, uh, permission to be human. And part of that humanity is allowing and experiencing and openly discussing these emotional experiences that are unsavory, but they by no means make anyone male or female weak.

They're human. Yeah, and that, you know, for me, even it reached a point for me and maybe there are other veterans that feel this way, but for, you know, for me, for years, I had trouble being around veterans. I wouldn't step foot in a VFW. I wouldn't step foot in an American Legion. I didn't talk to many of my friends, because a lot of it brought up the past trauma.

And so then it would cause the other things you're talking about, whether it was constant insomnia or hypervigilance or it kept that pattern going. And, you know, for me, unfortunately, kind of what led me finally to get help is I had a home robbery that I walked in on in 2017. And I had, you know, I had gone through a divorce at that point and had, once you do that, all of a sudden go from your constantly around people to, for the first time in 20 years, I had free time. And so you start analyzing things about your life, etc. and what you like and what you don't.

And start facing the brutal reality of what's going on. But I took my daughter to school this day and at the time I was working out at Orange Theory a few days a week and I went to this normal class and they had an electrical fire. So I went home, you know, against my normal schedule and I walk in and there's this pair of, you know, shoes in the hallway that aren't mind, but I was running and I thought it was a person from the rental company who was doing work. So I started, you know, saying, you know, I'm home, who's here, and then I just figured

they had, you know, earphones on or something and couldn't hear me. And as I went up my stairs, there's a man holding a gun pointed at me. And next thing I know, it's fear and flight and everything else. But that incident took all those things that I've been suppressing and trying to deal with and multiplied it by 10 fold. And then unfortunately a week later, one of my best friends committed suicide. So it was kind of like two things back to back.

And going through that, it really made me face the fact that I am never gonna be the person, I am destined to be unless I deal with this and start dealing with these inner demons, because you're right, it impacts your interpersonal relationships, it impacted, for me, work, it impacted, because my mind would check out all the time.

And like you're saying, it still is. I constantly have to catch myself because my mind would check out all the time. And like you're saying, it still is. I constantly have to catch myself and it drives my kids and I know my girlfriend crazy because all of a sudden they'll be talking to me. And my mind is in Southern Iraq or it's in Bosnia or it's at that, it's back at the house where that incident happened.

So, what have you found, and then maybe I'll share some of mine, how have you found ways to unpack that and put it to the side. So, you can, like you said, observe your mind from behind and realize when this is happening and take yourself out of that situation. Well, first of all, thank you for sharing that with me because that's, I appreciate your vulnerability. I have more respect for vulnerability than I do pretty much anything else

because it's not easy. And it takes a level of emotional physical strength to put our fears out there. We can look at these things and say, how do I put them to the side? How do I shush them? How do I process them? These are the things that keep me from being me,

or we could look at these things and say, no, these were the ingredients to make you exactly who you were meant to be, which is in this context a voice. This is a dialogue that a lot of men that specifically men and well, men and women that resonate with your story or anything in between, 2020. You know, that resonate with your story

and your experiences are hearing this and saying, oh my God, I'm not crazy like this. This happens to somebody else. Maybe there is an opportunity for me to heal too. So we can look at these traumas and these experiences and say, why did this happen to me? Why couldn't it have been different? Why can't I get rid of this? Why is it here or we can look at it and say, thank you for showing me this information, whatever that information might be. Thank you for allowing me to have these first-person awarenesses so that I can more effectively and compassionately guide and present leadership to those who might really need it. My personal

why with everything was coaching, with social media, with everything, is suicide prevention. So I really want to take a moment and like illuminate that, but whoever's listening to this, moment and like illuminate that, but whoever's listening to this, there is nothing you are going through that will be solved through that. So please reach out to anyone, to me, to John, to anybody if that's something that you're dealing with. But more specifically, when it comes to processing trauma, there are infinite ways to go about this. My first response is going to be asking for help, having a trusted individual, whether it is a therapist, a mentor, a friend, somebody that you can openly be vulnerable and honest

with about these triggers as they're presenting themselves to you, a coach. If you don't have that, the first thing to ground yourself into is that while your brain is experiencing this post-traumatic memory in the present, that is not happening in the present. So the first step is to get you out of whether it is a regressive thought looking back or a fearful foresight thought, which anxiety by definition is fear of the future. If we create the awareness that our brain is time traveling between past and future, we can ground it into the present. And this is gonna sound really silly,

but I promise that it works. And I want you to try this like the next time that you feel your trigger is getting pulled, count the colors in the room. The frontal lobe is responsible for all labeling, categorizing, and messaging of the brain. So it's the one that makes the decisions, it's the one that plans for potential threats, but the only way it can do that is by assessing past threats and past traumas. So when it reaches back into the limbic system and says, one was the last time this thing

happened, well, what is the most likely outcome for this? Your brain is going to rifle through all of the things that could go wrong so that it can keep you safe. But if we look at it and say, I'm here, I'm now physically, I'm safe. The second thing you do between bringing your awareness to the present and getting your brain out of time travel is breaths. The breath is one of the subconscious functions that we actually have conscious control of. So if we're able to bring awareness to the way that we breathe, the thoughts and the racing memory and the time traveling starts to slow because you're asking your brain to focus on something else. Third thing I would tell you to do is put it in writing. Writing is one of, I call it neurological digestion, but if you don't do it, if you don't process, you're going to

have neurological indigestion, which results in like brainfarts and abs and minded nuts. But really writing or chronically these experiences for what they were in, what you learned from them, which seems extreme, but whether it's journaling or lists or whatever it might be, allowing your brain to fully digest it and bring it in, so that you can digest this neurological process rather than shushing it because it's just going to come back around. Did you know that Forbes Magazine recently cited that over 70% of individuals who did personal development courses, masterminds, or one-on-one coaching benefited from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills.

Here at PassionStruck, we are obsessed with self-development, coaching and mentorship. That is why we've created a free resource to help you unlock your hidden potential, because people doing great things in business and life are just like you. They have just gotten some coaching along the way. And we have got you covered so you can too.

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Yeah, I think you've hit on a ton of great points there. One of the things I've learned going through it is one thing you said was absolutely true for me. I hate talking about it. And recently, because I'm at the VA and undergoing some treatment for it, I've had to repeat it probably more times over the past four months than I have in the past 24 years. But, you know, I'm realizing through that I can be more vulnerable about it,

but for me, one of the best things I started to do was to write, because I found I could be more vulnerable, especially with myself. And one of the biggest steps I first steps I took is it took me years to want to write this article, but I wrote an article on the impact of traumatic brain injuries, but kind of the journey from once you have them to the misunderstanding

that's happening in the medical world, because they immediately wanna say, a dramatic brain injury gets better with time. And while in many cases that is true, that's not always the case. And so you immediately, many of us get labeled as if you have a mental health issue. And for me, I didn't start feeling depression Immediately, many of us get labeled as if you have a mental health issue.

And for me, I didn't start feeling depression until 15 years after I had the TBI's. And I kept saying, there's a physical reason for this because if it was just mental, I could deal with it. But there's other things going on. And I went through this process of no one believing, no one believing. And finally, I went to the TBI clinging at the VA and guess what? I had physical issues, a vestibular dysfunction that was causing a lot of these things to happen.

So I decided to write about it because I think if one person could read that article, I kind of have it buried on medium because it's not something I've been on so to media. But if someone reads that and now 3500 or so people have read it, I think you can change someone's life. Absolutely. Yeah, and you were talking about helping veterans. And I remember hearing a story from you on another podcast that your family, especially I think it's your mom and maybe an aunt, do

a lot to help veterans. And one thing I picked up on is, I suffer from chronic pain. I think many, many veterans do. And I think that was something that your mom might deal with. And so, you know, if you could talk a little bit about that story and that foundation she's doing with, I think it's stem cell research. Yeah, yeah, well stem cell and alternative pain solutions. So my mom had a series of events transpired that left her bed ridden for close to seven years. Six years, she actually just the other day took off the chair lift. Oh, that's amazing.

Wow, so it's pretty crazy. And my mom, my grandma, savage, mom, savage, like they are entrepreneurial badasses. My grandma and my grandpa were bulls in the Air Force. My grandma was an Air Force nurse. My grandpa was an Air Force fighter pilot. And my grandfather on my dad's side was a military medic in World War II.

So we have military family going back on both sides and my grandma's superpower was plastic surgery. She had the plastic surgery recovery facility to the stars. And so she decided to utilize those resources and connections to provide a reconstructive surgery to wound veterans returning back so that they could get a little bit of their humanness and hoots back. And I was heavily involved with that growing up. And then my mom, having battled with chronic pain,

she's undergone over a hundred procedures, including ketamine infusions, operations, pain pumps, you name it, she's dealt with it. I have nothing but respect for her having gone through as much as she's gone through and still coming out on the other side going, well, how can I use this to help somebody? So, he's created veterans and pain or VIP where she provides pro bono stem cell and alternative medical solutions to veterans who are battling chronic pain because these solutions are available through the VA and the VA does very little to help in an alternative way and sometimes true, sometimes, most, if not all of the time.

Standard, Western medical procedures only scratch the surface of what's actually going on. She's worked with Dr. Prager out of UCLA who was an amazing, amazing soul to come through and help her. And he is a pain specialist and they have an integrative pain program where they also have a psychologist on staff and they have a myriad of other specialists working together with the awareness that pain is not just a physical experience, but it is also a psychological emotional and sensory experience as well. Well, I thank you for sharing that and that's an amazing thing because I have suffered

personally from Achilles injuries for three years and years and years. And from a person who competed Division I as a runner has run marathons to now, I haven't been able to run in five or six years. It's completely changed my life. And my type, they can't do surgery on. So I've tried everything from taking pain killers to taking homeopathic things. And currently, my research is showing stem cells are one of the things that can fix it. So I'm sure if it works for this, there's so many parts of the things that can fix it. So I'm sure, you know, if it works for this,

there's so many parts of the body that it can positively impact. And I know very little about stem cells. So I'm not going to speak on its processes at all because I know very, very little about it. But what I can say is that my mom, did I mention that they took down the chairlift? Like she's doing great. Yeah, that is that is unbelievable. Did I mention that they took down the chairlift? Like she's doing great. That is unbelievable. So she's doing great.

She fills out her whole day working with VIP. I highly recommend you check it. You definitely need to check it out. We haven't already. She's doing wonderful stuff. Well, that's fantastic. You know, another thing I'll add is Bernie veterans who are out there who are dealing with issues faced by

traumatic brain injury. I found an incredible foundation called the War Angels Foundation, another nonprofit, and it was started by a Green Bray, and I heard about it on the Jim Rohn show, and he is working with a homeopathic neurocologist, I guess is what they call it, but they have found that hormone treatment and supplements can do so much and it's now more and more studies are coming back, but I think they've now helped 250, 300 in that range of veterans and I've been on their supplements about two months. And I'm already seeing a pretty profound difference in, you know,

with helping with focus and, you know, concentration issues and everything else. So, I wanted to throw that out and that out as well. Awesome. So, I'm glad, you know, we had this long talk about, you know, dealing with trauma because one of the things that completely blew me away is, I don't know your exact age, but you know, I've got a 22 year old and I don't think you're much older than him, but you know, when I met you and since I've grown known you, you're one of the most authentic people

I know. known you you're one of the most authentic people I know. It was actually one of the things that caused me to just speak to you. And I was wondering in the back of my mind, how is this young lady so confident in who she is and her message? And you've talked about it. But I think people look at, they're in their 20s and many of them, you know, you and I had two very different backgrounds, but a lot of it's similar, you know, I didn't have a normal background because when I was in my 20s, you know, I was at a service academy, you know, and then I'm fighting in wars.

And so completely different than most people's, you had a different one because you were facing, you know, trauma in your 20s. But how do you teach, you know, how do you tell people your age that they can rise out of that and gain the confidence that you have? Ah.

The running joke in my family is like, thanks, it's the trauma. Like, that's what got us here. I also tell people that on the inside, I'm like 126. There's a lot of layers to this that I'm not going to go into, but can you clarify the question? Because there's so many ways for me to go with this that I don't even know where to begin.

Well, I guess what I was wondering is, you know, there's, like, you go in the gym and you and I have both seen it. And there are those people who are like plotting away. There are those who, you know, the Macho Man who are, you know, looking in the mirror every 10 seconds. And, you know, there are those people there who I think it's just like within them

that the working out brings them so much joy and that they wanna share that joy and confidence with others. And that's kinda how, a lot of times I don't feel people are approachable. They have their headsets on, I do that a lot. And for you, it would just felt something different. I could just sense. That's so funny because I have like the worst training RBF in like resting bitch face,

the worst, the worst. Like when I'm in a set, I look like I could punch a kid and I would never, you know, like I'm the nicest person within reason. But I think to answer your question as far as as gaining confidence or feeling comfortable in your own skin enough to like share your message and be vulnerable, I just hang out with you. You're pretty dope. You know? You know, I would definitely say spend some time with yourself and the other thing I would say is get to know little you because he, she, they is very much so alive and well. And getting to know that little unfucked with untampered with version of you has all of the answers. Yeah, I heard, you're right, I heard.

I can't remember who his guest was, but I recently listened to a Tom Billy U Impact Theory podcast. And his guest was talking about, you know, the first thing to think about when you go, you know, searching for your self-identity is, you know, what, like you're saying, what did you love when you were a kid? You know, what were those things that made you smile brought you so much happiness.

You know kind of ruled your world and. I think regardless of what what age it is that's a good starting point. It's a great starting point I don't think enough people do that you know in the spiritual healing community they'll talk about. Healing the inner child like yeah okay it's a little it. It's little U. It's U before the world got to you. And he's still there. They are still there. They're still super aware. They're most of our trauma triggers to kind of bring this conversation full circle or the wounded, unheard, underappreciated, younger version of us that did not feel that they got what they needed or didn't feel like they mattered at all. And so if we start to listen to

them, if we start to bring that awareness, not dialogue with our past or younger version of ourselves to the forefront of our awareness, then we can say, okay, I understand you didn't feel heard of then, how can I make you feel heard now? I understand you didn't have this information then, how can I make you feel heard now? I understand you didn't have this information then, but look at everything that we've learned and what you have available to you now. Yeah, absolutely. And that kind of leads me into,

as people are approaching that, one of the, I mean, I think the two biggest complaints I always hear about, as I'm, when I'm mentoring or working with someone is, you know, I don't have the time, I don't have the money, you know, and I think, you know, your way of talking about the other 23 hours is a good way to put it, because I think, in my own mind, I think time is malleable, and I'll go back to that example that I gave when I was running cross country.

You know, at one point, you know, it never seemed like I had any time at all. And then all of a sudden, when I was getting better and better and better, and I was putting the focus there, all of a sudden, five minutes would seem like it was, you know, sometimes it would feel like five minutes was 30, but at other times, I'd run an hour run, and it feel like it was five minutes. And I think you find time for what you're passionate about. So, I wanted to lead you in with that about this concept of the other 23 hours.

So, in my opinion, you can't afford not to. I would agree with you. I'm not saying best in yourself, or spend time with you. The other thing that I'd like to piggyback off of that is that the brain doesn't know how to tell time. Time is something that we have constructed to give ourselves some sense of time and space based on the solar rhythm.

And then our body functions off of that circadian rhythm based off of the amount of sunlight we do or don't get, which because of how much tech we have in our experience, the blue light emitted from this tech stimulates that circadian rhythm to make it think it's daytime. If you've ever been to Vegas, they do the same thing. If you're walking through the Venetian at 3 a.m. and the sky's blue, you're like, I'm not tired. Like, no shit.

Like, your body thinks it's daytime. The same goes for memory, right? So if we're talking about traumas, if we're talking about old belief systems, if we're talking about healing little you, hanging out with little you, we're talking about memories that exist in the brain that have not been processed yet. Not only that, but the brain does not know whether it's happening right now or if it's already passed to the nervous system, especially in a post traumatic sense, it's happening right freaking now, being your nervous system. It's like, nope, here it is. This is what's happening. So if we can ground

that and appreciate that and say, I understand brain that you think that this is happening right now. I understand that this is the way things were, but that doesn't mean that it's the way things are. And when we take that present perspective, we can consciously and with intention redirect that into something that's far more serving to our overall well-being. The only way to do that is to get comfortable with the other 23 hours of the day, which is where you do the reps that matter.

You can flex all you want in the gym. You can be the biggest baddest motherfucker in the gym and still be small in the inside. What an amazing point. And something that you see all the literally all the time. Well, I can't be on a podcast with you without talking about female influence, you know, because I think it's something that's core to you. And I just wondered, you know, in discussing female influence, how do you think a woman's strength and aspects of masculinity in them are changing? You know, because I think women today are far different than women

when I was growing up. So what does that look like? And the second part. They're not. They're just open about it. They're OK. Women are amazing. If I were to argue, like I love men,

I work with mostly men. Women have the superpower of maternal instinct, which allows us to not only have compassion for ourselves. You've ever seen a group of female women, they are so physically affectionate with one another. Girl, you look amazing. I mean, ideally, if you're hanging out with the right women with empowered women They are going to empower you hanging out with weak women. They're going to tear you down. I'm gonna be a mosquito

There's like all the goodness out of your life But when it comes to Influence takes such an interesting term Connotation to with the influencer Archetype. I don't even know what that means But when it comes to female influences in my own life, that I believe and hold to that female empowerment standard, the first person that comes to my mind is my grandmother and my great grandmother and my mom.

My great grandmother supported her entire family through the Depression by starting a knitting company. What? My grandmother was an Air Force nurse her entire family through the Depression by starting a knitting company. Wow. My grandmother was an Air Force nurse who started the number one plastic surgery recovery facility to celebrities in Beverly Hills. She had a whole wing of a hotel that was just hers to run her business and do her thing and then she started her foundation and she's a real estate like she has a real estate license and works in investing in real estate and all that.

So she's a badass. My mom had divorced my dad at 28 with a kid on each hip. My brother was about six months old and a couple years later wound up remarrying, but built her entire photography business from the ground up because it was something that she was passionate about that she always wanted to do. She had finished her degree even after taking time off, having been through a very complex marriage and procreating, which will do a number on a woman. And she started an incredibly successful photography business that wound up being international. She was being flown around the globe to do weddings for various high-level people.

So when I think of female empowerment, my instinct is to come back business being the center of it, but I feel like it's the self-sufficiency and the willingness to be a tried and true self-starter from start to finish, that makes an empowered woman an empowered woman. She is not going to be reliant on the approval, the acceptance of a man in her life, which is the conventional breadwinner, the conventional nuclear breadwinner, which there's a lot of issues with the nuclear archetype that we'll talk about that later. But a woman that's willing to say,

you know what, I know I've been through things and I still have love to give. I know that I'm strong physically and I'm feminine and sexy and letting myself own it. I know that I can fuck you up if I need to, but I will love you enough to hear you out first. To me, an empowered woman is a balanced woman, who is, it's not about masculine or feminine, because they exist in all of us, whether we have a dick or not. It's the balance of those two

energies and the equal give and take that flows through an individual's experience that makes an empowered woman and an empowered woman. And that doesn't have to be buff. No, that's great. My partner right now happens to be a nurse practitioner, but she has really so many qualities that are far different than people I'd, you know, had been with in the past. And one of them is a lot of you reminds me a lot of her. I mean, she is human as fuck. And, you know, she, there's, she doesn't hide any of it. She wears it all on her sleeve. And you're going to get exactly what she feels, especially if you're her person when she's talking to you.

I can't get, can I just tell you that's a gift because that woman, if she is that way, has been through some shit and she has dealt with likely the polar opposite of what you're offering her and is like, listen, I care about you so much. I'm going to be blunt with you. I feel for you and I have so much love for you. I'm going to be straight with you because she doesn't want to mislead you or be misled. That's power.

That's a gift. That's true love in my opinion. Yeah. And it's just, it's amazing to me that, you know, on any given day, she sees, you know, from 20 to 30 patients. And, you know, she's this outpouring of empathy to everyone she meets. And, you know, she's, you know, she can turn that off and be, you know, the most incredible partner you would want, who even is fucked up as I am. You know, and I think we all are, you know, the most incredible partner you would want, who even is fucked up as I am. And I think we all are, you know, is there, you know, support me when, you know, at times my

head is a million miles away. And, you know, well, I'd like to take a moment here and add something to this discussion of female empowerment, because I do work with mostly men. And there's something to be said for a balanced masculine. A true empowered man. This is just gonna be my next question. Watch out. They are not macho.

They're not down woman go make me a sandwich. That is not a true, to me that's a weak man. Any man that hides behind either his muscles or his money is weak as hell. But a man that says, hey, I'm feeling things and I need to process them. And I love you enough to let you know what's going on. Do you mind if I just talk this out with you? Power. A man that is willing to empathetically connect with himself and others, divine.

Divine. Yeah, I'm not sure if you've ever heard of the name. There's still name Coggins. He's pretty famous. He's written a book. But one thing that resonates with him is he's had money. He's done speaking engagements, etc. But now he goes around just with the backpack on his back and pours around the United States. And you know, your point about money in hiding behind

that or or muscles or whatever it is, you know, I can tell you and you know, at the height of my career in Fortune 50 companies, I was in the C-suite and making more money than I ever dreamed I could make. And inside I was the most unhappy I had ever been. I had all these material things. We had this millions dollars know, millions dollars houses overlooking this incredible, it looked like you're looking down the Grand Canal in Hill Country

and Austin, Texas. We had like seven cars. We had ATVs. I had set up an archery course in the backyard for my son, because we were on 5, 10 acres. But, you know, inside I was just miserable. Because I realized I wasn't living who I was supposed to be. And yet you get so caught up in the rat race

over what's truly important, like you're saying here. And I think it's something that, in many cases, that's how we try to look at masculine. Is these people have all this money or, you know, this guy is getting these girls because he's got the muscles. Well, I don't think that that's a true reality. Oh, it's a flawed reality, completely flawed reality.

Further perpetuated by social media, the media, it's exhausting. And I love when I get a male client that has meet in one of those directions. And then like within weeks, they're like, Mac, like, how mom I'm Mac. They're so excited about experiencing this balance and the self-compassion and this openness within themselves. And then they have no choice but to go share it. And, you know, we can look at fulfillment as a full bank account or a full house or a full garage, but fulfillment is something that fills you up.

Not somebody else or something else, you know. And I think that if I were to say anything to like the archetypal masculine in 2020, it would be, give it a rest. You know, like, what are you flexing for? And why? You know? Yeah, it's one of the most authentic genuinely, like, kind of people I'd ever met. And although, he's good looking and everything like that, he just leads with humility.

And I think God knows how he turned out that way. Hopefully his mom and I had a little bit to do with it. But. They all leader. That's how he turned out that way. But you know, it's interesting to watch because a lot of the things that he would complain about me as we were growing up. Dad, you're always on your computer. Now when he comes over, just what's on his computer working? I'm like, too, you're doing the same thing. So it's now kind of fun to point out the other side of it. Well, Mac, I just wanted to allow you to give a shut out

if people want to know more about you, where are some different places that they can find you. Absolutely. First and foremost, if you want to connect with me like a human, follow me at the human builder, the underscore human underscore builder. If you are curious about guidance or coaching, there is a link in that bio that you can check out,

or you can just head over to humanbuilder.com. We're on YouTube as the human builder, TikTok, as the human builder. And you can follow me on Twitter at MacRusina, where you can hang out with my brain thoughts. But mostly if you are interested in guidance, if you're curious about what's next, shoot me a DM on Instagram. It's just me.

So it's the fastest and easiest way to get a hold of me. And we'll figure out what's next for you. But just connect with me. Don't be worried. If you listen to this and it resonates with you just send me a message. I promise you you will get a response. Okay, that's great. And any anything you're reading right now or I know you're a film buff, anything you're watching that you would point to the audience to check out? I mean, what I'm reading right now may not resonate with most people. I'm on my second read of the Bug Baguita, which is the Hindu Gospel, and that's my favorite. Like, that's my morning time.

I'm also reading Sairsi, which was a recommendation from a friend, which is more of a fantastical novel, it's a fantasy novel, and I was doing a reread of the Harry Potter books through quarantine. Well, you and my daughter would get along well. Yeah, no, part of double doors army over here trying to find off the dementors one of the time. Well, this was a ton of fun. Thank you for being so vulnerable. Really enjoyed doing this with you. I appreciate you. Thank you so much. What an amazing interview that was with MacBrazina.

She is such a powerhouse, authentic, vulnerable, human as fuck. What joy it was for me to have her on today. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. If you like it, please hit the subscribe button on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, or whatever broadcast you may be listening to this, please share this on your social media channels. And if you do, please tag me at John Aramiles or on Instagram at PassionStruckLife and keep igniting your potential. In this next episode, I'm going to talk about something we touched on today, which is the mosquito principle, and why it's so vitally important on your journey to becoming Passion Struck that you do a mosquito audit in your own life.

I will leave you with this as I always do. Make a choice, work every day, and step into the sharp edges. Thank you again for listening and watching to PassionStruck and have a great day. Thank you so much for joining us. A purpose of our show is to make Passion Go viral. By sharing the knowledge and insights you can use to unlock your hidden potential. To hear more, please subscribe to the show in iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen

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a choice, work hard, and step into your sharp edges. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time. you